Dr Michio Hirano, the US doctor who has offered to treat terminally ill Charlie Gard, has attended a meeting at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) to discuss whether the infant should travel to America for experimental therapy. Great Ormond Street has granted Dr Hirano an honorary contract, giving him the same status as its own physicians, allowing him to examine Charlie and access his full medical records.
The meeting is part of the latest stage of a court fight brought by Charlie's parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, from Bedfont, south west London, over whether he should receive experimental treatment in the United States. Charlie, born on 4 August 2016, has a form of mitochondrial disease, a condition causing progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.
Dr Hirano, a professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, has offered an experimental therapy called nucleoside. The case has been through multiple court hearings, with judges ruling that doctors can stop life-support treatment. The Pope and US President Donald Trump have offered to intervene.
In a recent statement, Great Ormond Street Hospital said: 'At the heart of Charlie's parlous and terrible condition is the question, how can it be in his best interests for his life-sustaining treatment to be withdrawn?' The hospital noted it had treated over 1,000 patients with mitochondrial disease and offered nucleoside treatment where appropriate, but remained unanimous that withdrawal of ventilation and palliative care were all it could offer Charlie.
